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Good Mountain Press Monthly Digest #073

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~ In Memoriam: 073 Art Buchwald (1925 - 2007) ~~~~
~~~~~~~~ [ Humorist — One of the Funniest Men I've Ever Read in a Newspaper Column, a Modern Day Mark Twain who will be sorely missed. ] ~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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~~~ GOOD MOUNTAIN PRESS DIGEST #073 Published March 1, 2007 ~~~

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Quote for the Windy Month of March:

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton Early 20th Century Writer (equally true about TV and Internet invented after G. K. Chesterton)

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©2007 by 21st Century Education, Inc, Published Monthly.
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THE GOOD MOUNTAIN PRESS DIGEST #073, March 2007
Archived Digests
Table of Contents

1. March's Violet-n-Joey Cartoon
2. Honored Readers for March
3. On a Personal Note
4. Cajun Story
5. Recipe of the Month from Bobby Jeaux’s Kitchen
6. Poem from Flowers of Shanidar:"Waiting for the Flowers"
7. Reviews and Articles Added for March:

8. Commentary on the World
9. Closing Notes - our mailing list, locating books, unsubscribing to Digest
10. Gratitude

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THE GOOD MOUNTAIN PRESS DIGEST #073
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ARCHIVED DIGESTWORLD ISSUES ON THE WEB
 
~ ARCHIVED DIGESTWORLD ISSUES ~
2000: INAUGURAL YEAR: Jun  
#1 Jul  #2, Aug  #3, Sept  #4, Oct  #5, Nov  #6, Dec  #7
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2007: Jan#071,Feb#072,Mar#073,Apr#074,May#075,Jun#076,Jul#077,Aug#078,Sep#079,Oct#07a,Nov#07b,Dec#07c
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2009: Jan#091,Feb#092,Mar#093,Apr#094,May#095,Jun#096,Jul#097,Aug#098,Sep#099,Oct#09a,Nov#09b,Dec#09c
2010: Jan#101,Feb#102,Mar#103,Apr#104,May#105,Jun#106,Jul#107,Aug#108,Sep#109,Oct#10a,Nov#10b,Dec#10c
2011: Jan#111,Feb#112,Mar#113,Apr#114,May#115,Jun#116,Jul#117,Aug#118,Sep#119,Oct#11a,Nov#11b,Dec#11c
2012: Jan#121,Feb#122,Mar#123,Apr#124,May#125,Jun#126,Jul#127,Aug#128,Sep#129,Oct#12a,Nov#12b,Dec#12c
2013: Jan#131,Feb#132,Mar#133,Apr#134,May#135,Jun#136,Jul#137,Aug#138,Sep#139,Oct#13a,Nov#13b,Dec#13c
2014: Jan#141,Feb#142,Mar#143,Apr#144,May#145,Jun#146,Jul#147,Aug#148,Sep#149,Oct#14a,Nov#14b,Dec#14c
2015: Jan#151,Feb#152,Mar#153,Apr#154,May#155,Jun#156,Jul#157,Aug#158,Sep#159,Oct#15a,Nov#15b,Dec#15c
2016: Jan#161,Feb#162,Mar#163,Apr#164,May#165,Jun#166,Jul#167,Aug#168,Sep#169,Oct#16a,Nov#16b,Dec#16c
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2019: Jan#191,Feb#192,Mar#193,Apr#194,May#195,Jun#196,Jul#197,Aug#198,Sep#199,Oct#19a

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1. March Violet-n-Joey CARTOON:
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For newcomers to the Digest, we have created a webpage of all the Violet-n-Joey cartoons! Check it out at: http://www.doyletics.com/vjtoons.htm Also note the rotating calendar and clock that follows just to the right of your mouse pointer as you scroll down the page. You'll also see the clock on the 404 Error page if you make a mistake typing a URL while on the doyletics.com website.

The Violet-n-Joey Cartoon page is been divided into two pages: one low-speed and one high-speed access. If you have Do NOT Have High-Speed Access, you may try this Link which will load much faster and will allow you to load one cartoon at a time. Use this one for High-Speed Access.

This month Violet and Joey learn about A Definite Maybe.

#1 "A Definite Maybe" at http://www.doyletics.com/images/12180603.gif

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2. HONORED READERS FOR March:
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Each month we take time to thank two of our good readers of Good Mountain Press Digest, books and reviews. Here's our two worthy Honored Readers for this month. One of their names will be in the TO: address line of your email Digest notification. Our Honored Readers for March are:

Ellen Young in California

Sidney Bach in New Orleans

Congratulations, Ellen and Sidney !


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3. ON A PERSONAL NOTE:


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Out Our Way:

February was a great month for us even though we had a few relatives come down ill. One of our sons had severely impacted sinuses which caused us some concern, but he’s okay now after losing a couple of weeks or so of work and getting some much needed rest along the way. As his luck would have it, he was better just in time for Mardi Gras. My dad, Buster Matherne, fell several times, was dizzy, and while X-raying for broken ribs, they found pneumonia in his other lung. Del and I drove over to see him and he looked as frail as I have ever seen him, but with some Home Health and oxygen, his 89-yr-old lungs are cleared up again and he’s feeling much better. Our daughter-in-law had some problems with a kidney stone, but by the end of the month and a couple of trips to the hospital, she was able to pass the stone and is feeling better. Del had a short bout of stomach distress which laid her low for a couple of days, but she has bounced right back and is giving me as much misère as ever. And as much fun, of course. As you can see from the number of movies we’ve watched this month, the weather was cold outside — by New Orleans standards of course. That meant we were able to burn a fire in the hearth on several days, which is always a winter treat for us. Still have some firewood remaining, but it was our second order and needed some seasoning, so it will be great for the first fire of next winter.

Speaking of winter, is there anyone above the Mason-Dixon Line who still believes in global warming? Certainly not the town in upper New York State which got 11 feet of snow in one week! Meanwhile down here in good ole sub-tropical New Orleans, we’re about to lose the “sub” on the sub-tropical tag if we don’t get a hard freeze soon. It’s been about four or five years since any of our tropical plants have frozen. Heck, it’s been that long since I’ve had to haul them into the garage because of a predicted hard freeze. The leaves of my papaya trees have been frozen, but the trees are all intact, as are the large ivy leaves bigger than placements crawling up the live oak trunk near the patio.

Here it is only a few days before March and already the narcissus blooms are slightly past their prime, the azaleas are nearing full bloom, and the first signs of blooms on the lemon tree and navel orange trees are out. Our petunias planted last fall have completely revived and are showing lots of blooms. The robins have been hopping all over our lawn for a month. Aren't they supposed to wait until Spring? All my first grade books told me so.

Our second grand-daughter Jennifer got married to Anthony Terranova of the Terranova Supermarket on Esplanade Avenue. First day of February we went to the rehearsal at Holy Rosary, followed by the Rehearsal Dinner at Impastato’s Restaurant in Metairie. I got great photos of all the couples there. Enjoying playing with Jane Bayhi as I took her photo. She dislikes having her photo taken, but we have fun in the attempts. Got a great photo of her at Nobie’s Crawfish Boil one year with her son Steve and his wife, Maureen (my daughter)’s help. Had no help at all at the Rehearsal Dinner, so didn’t get a good photo of Jane. In addition all the photos I took at the dinner and wedding got lost to a computer glitch. We had a large group at the Italian restaurant and they kept bringing out appetizers, so much food that by the time it was time for the entree, everyone seemed almost too full. I had enough food for a week, which was lucky as the food was not as good at the wedding reception two days later and I still wasn’t very hungry. Kinda lost my appetite that night. But the bride and groom looked happy and my daughter was the proudest mother of the bride I’ve ever seen. Those who saw me and Del walking down the aisle said that we looked right spiffy. As the only grandfather present, I expect we’ll be getting photo for me to share with you by next month. You know how long it takes to sort through wedding pictures.

I had planned a quiet day for the Friday between the dinner and the wedding, but I got a call from Paul Oliver with an invitation to his retirement party. After 40-something years with the Louisiana highway department, he was retiring. I drove to his office which was in a group of trailers inside one of the equipment yards. Felt just like being back at Waterford-3 Nuclear Power Plant when I had my office in a similar trailer for about eight years. Our mutual friends, Gary and Roland, were there and I did manage to get some photos of Paul’s retirement party without any hassles and the computer glitch passed right over those photos. Paul and his wife Andrea have now moved across Lake Pontchartrain and we won’t be seeing Paul at PJ’s Coffeeshop as often any more. Too bad, because now his work won’t be interfering with his coffee breaks as it did before.

The Saturday morning of Jennifer and Anthony’s wedding we went to the CODOFIL Breakfast. CODOFIL is the Council for the Development of French-speaking In Louisiana. My Grandma Babin spoke French until her first daughter started school the first year they switched to English as a requirement for speaking in school by a state law. Grandma Daisy taught herself to speak English so well that by the time I came around about twenty years later, that was the only language she spoke around us. My mother learned the language only a little because she was about the fourth child out of eleven. My dad was also exposed to it and could speak it a little, but my parents never spoke it much around us, except for the many French names which everyone we knew used for common everyday items. The concrete strip in front of our home in Westwego, we called a “banquette” though I assumed it was an English word spelled “banket” for many years. The zip fly we called a “braguette” and old leather shoes we called “brogans”. I used tell females who moved to New Orleans from white bread English-only states that they had better learn a little French or else they could get in trouble if a guy asked for help with his brogans and they went for his brougette by mistake. So at these Saturday petit-dejeuners we eat some scrambled eggs, pain-perdue, some boudin balls, some hominy grits, knosh on hogshead cheese and cracklings, and wash it down with some café au lait. We enjoy a short French lesson and we sing Cajun songs in the original French, the language spoken by my Babin ancestors who came to Fort Royal in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in 1605, 15 years before the Mayflower landed a bit further south.

After the breakfast we sped across the river to a church on West Metairie for the funeral service for our good friend, Skeeter Wetzel. He had a Marine Corps unit there and we saw our friends Bill and Kathy Hornsby. From there we drove the reception at the Lions Hall on Metairie Road, and from there back across the river to Timberlane to dress for the wedding that night. And back across the river for the wedding. This was definitely a Saturday to remember. The wedding did have one big hitch, however, it was Jennifer and Anthony getting hitched. Forgot to mention that my two pre-teen grand-daughters, Molly and Evelyn, were flower girls and my great-grandson Ben was the ring bearer. All my grandchildren acquitted themselves well at the wedding. Word is the happy couple, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Terranova, flew to a Colorado Ski Resort for their honeymoon.

The next day was Super Bowl Sunday and I had my plan all laid out. The Timberlane Screening Room was all mine. I had a few snacks at the ready and rooted for the Bears to whip the Colts. Next year I plan to root for the Saints in the Super Bowl. It was nice to see the Bears lose anyway since they were so rude to the Saints when we visited their home to play a little playoff game, and they roughed our boys. Wait till they come to our house and we’ll show them we can play roughhouse with the best and with the worst.

The wildlife around Timberlane has been active this month. Our friend Rosie has three Muscovy ducks sitting on eggs in her plants alongside her driveway. There's at least two red tail hawks whose nests I have been monitored on my coffee break run down Fairfield Avenue to PJ's Coffeeshop each morning. This morning I was able take a photo of a fledgling in a red tail hawk nest in a live oak at the corner of Fairfield and Meadowbrook. It is barely peeking out of its nest looking for its next meal to be delivered by "Meals on Wings". I've spotted a large flight of white pelicans with black-tipped wings over Timberlane and got one shot of them, but all you can make out is the large number in the flight. A mocking bird posed for me in our crepe myrtle this morning and will also grace this Digest.

This month was the beginning of LSU Baseball with its new Head Coach, Paul Manieri. I have subscribed to the Geaux Zone since last year when they were taking the bugs out of the streaming video broadcasts. So far I've been able to watch all the baseball games on my left-side monitor while doing computer housekeeping work and Digest preparation work on the right-side monitor. Here's how it looks in action. I'm acting typing these words as LSU takes on Tulane at Alex Box Stadium on the LSU campus and I'm watching it on my monitor.

This month the new sofa, chairs, and ottoman all got together for the first time in the Timberlane Living Room and Del is shown enjoying her decorating efforts. Next step will be in May when the new Persian Rug arrives. We've spent a lot of time moving things around in the LR, Guest Bedroom, Garage, and Screening Room to make everything fit and look good. There are still more moving around to do, but we're getting close.

This was maintenance month for us. Steiner had a small operation to remove a fatty lump on his shoulder. His vet, John Wayne, said he would be fine and he was. John Wayne had a neck brace on when we arrived and we had to listen to the story about how he fell out of a barn loft while chasing a goat he was trying to get it out of the barn. Had a little whiplash, but got a fun story in the bargain. Our Maxima needed a brake job and a couple of rotors replaced as well as a CV thingie. It had developed these symptoms for you guys out there: driving at 55 to 65, if I put on the brakes hard, a front end shimmy occurred until I took my foot off the brake. This was due to a bad disc brake rotor. Del’s Cadillac needed a brake job. The warning light kept saying “Check Brakes” and this was the only way to get it to stop. Seems that the wheel warning sensors that told us we needed new brake pads also had to be replaced. Are these one-time sensors? Almost $250 parts and labor just to replace the sensors. Heck, my brain can tell me when it’s time to replace brake pads and it only costs me to replace the pads! Before the month was over we got both of our cars detailed. I specified that Walter do a first pass with Polishing Compound on the white Maxima. I knew it would take off the road grime and yellowed wax and it did that just fine. I had to talk him into it, but before he was done, he was amazed how beautiful it came out when the wax was applied. Several people asked me if I had a new car.

The other maintenance was on the Timberlane Screening Room. The large RCA we paid to have moved here from Del’s mother’s penthouse had been showing signs of capacitor leakage due to the long time the TV sat unused after Katrina. Add that to the fact that the TV is an RCA which has poor high-voltage power supplies anyway. The first sign was a barrel-distortion on the right side of the screen which I had eliminated by hiding it behind a black band of paper for about six months. The next problem showed by the middle of this month and it was the picture began to degrade. The return horizontal scans became visible and the picture began to fade and lose color. The TV had to go and it took me several trips to appliance stores, Best Buy, then Circuit City, and finally at A-1 Appliance, I found exactly what I wanted: a SONY WEGA. Only an inch or two difference in screen size and a much better TV all-around. I had earlier in the month bought and installed a ATSC Tuner and antenna to watch HD local broadcasts because COX Cable was arguing with

WWL about carrying its HD signal and I got tired of hearing it. Now I don’t care what COX does. I can watch any local channel with HiDef and the others with an excellent digital image. We don’t watch any of the local channels except for sports games, but we’re ready now for the upcoming Saints football away games. Our home game season tickets are being ordered for the 2007 season. Last I heard there was a waiting list for about 3,000 fans who want season tickets who can’t buy them unless someone doesn’t renew and after the sellout season last year and the excellent playoff teams expectations for this year are for the Saints to make it to the Super Bowl.

The last Sunday of February I spent blending the new WEGA TV into my other five TV’s. That meant a lot of planning and long minutes of lying horizontal, squeezing my way behind the large projection screen TV to plug in the new connections to the WEGA and a new DVD player which I picked as well. By the end of the day, I was showing Del how to use the controls to switch between normal cable, Digital Cable, DVR, DVD, HD Broadcast, and two DISH receivers on each of the six TVs. Why do we have six TV’s, people ask me, and the best answer I can give them, because we can. Once you’ve had six TV’s and found all the ways they can be used to add to your enjoyment of TV, you can’t scale back. During New Year’s Day I can watch the Rose Parade on two different channels and four bowl games on the other four without ever using the Picture-in-Picture capability on two of the TV’s. There’s about a dozen different Digital Channels that I listen to non-stop music on, mostly classical music with occasional old favorites, Big Band, and Jazz from time to time. Mostly classical because I can read and write without being distracted by any lyrics. If I’m cooking or doing brain-in-idle computer housekeeping tasks, then lyrics are okay.

We watch most of our TV fare on DVR recordings or DVD movies. We watch no sitcoms, reality shows, American “Idles”, or Millionaire Wannabe shows. We said “You’re FIRED!” to such fare a long time ago. We watch movies, documentaries, and since it’s new to us, anything with great scenery and High Definition. After a full day of hammering the keys (me – at the PC) or shoveling the dirt (Del – in the garden, of course), the TSR becomes a decompression chamber where Del and I can enjoy some entertainment and each other’s company.

During the month I had lunch scheduled for a month or so ahead of time with our friend Patricia Dunbar at Cannon’s on Friday for noon. The morning I was leaving for lunch I told Del, and she said, “I’m meeting Sharon Roberts there at the same time!” We left separately, each with an errand to do first and we arrived at the restaurant from two different directions, her car right behind mine as I turned into the parking lot! I went in to look for Patricia and not seeing her, I turned around only to hear, “Bobby!” It was Sharon calling me from the table where she had just looked as I as turning around. We visited, then Del joined us, and we visited some more. When Patricia showed up we introduced her to Sharon and then we sat at separate tables for our lunch and catching up on each other’s lives since Katrina. Patricia and Sam have bought a house on the West Bank and are getting ready to move. Sam has developed a medical problem and is scheduled for surgery which is expected to repair the problem. Your prayers for his recovery are requested.

Our citrus crop is still producing with lots of grapefruit to be picked and eaten when the navel oranges run out. I picked up six large navels this morning from the overnight windfall. We picked half of our lemon crop, then squeezed the juice and froze it in ice cube trays for use later in the year. We get a lot of lemons, but can only pick them to use off the tree during a couple of months of the year. The blooms are already beginning to show on the lemon tree and the navel orange tree. There's always something happening in the citrus orchard, every month of the year. Fragrant blooms, green fruit, ripe fruit and evergreen leaves.

As part of our redecorating the living room, we had two leather arm chairs which we gave to Maureen. Her husband Steve, his co-worker, Paolo, and his mother Jane showed up to collect the chairs. While Steve and Paolo loaded up the truck, I showed Jane around Timberlane. She was interested in all the knick-knacks I’ve collected, the Screening Room and the Citrus Orchard. . Jane is always fun to have around and she’s someone I can joke with without her ever taking offense. As part of our redecorating I had to move our phonograph and LP collection to the garage and the old BSR Speakers and Woofer to the garage. The old SONY Receiver/Amplifier which blew its output transistor has been repaired and so I will create an LP-Audiotape dubbin facility in the garage and a stereo for when I’m doing work in the garage. I still have a large B-29 balsa model which is waiting for its tissue covering and final assembly in the garage. Might as well have some music to go along with the final stages of the work. I started it when my first grandson was 3 and he just turned 21. Hope to complete before he has grandsons.

In weather or not news, a tornado barreled through my old hometown of Westwego early one morning and we can say “Good Night” to the Bon Soir Motel which has been an eyesore, er, fixture alongside the Westbank Expressway for too long. A few days later I drove through the city and didn’t see any damage to my childhood home or Our Lady of Prompt Succor Church. It was bad news for several families whose homes were nearly restored from the wrath of Katrina and were now lying in ruins thanks to this nameless tornado.

The rest of the month was taken up by breakfasts, decorating days, lunches, pre-parties, Ball, and post party for my club’s Mardi Gras Ball. All hush-hush, don’t you know. They won’t even tell me if I enjoyed myself and since I can’t publish any photos of the events, well, you won’t know either. The only way you’ll know is if I tell you again next year that I can’t talk about it.

Mardi Gras Day we watched our first parades of the season. We watched some of Zulu and all of the Rex Parade on St. Charles Avenue near where our friend, Mike Jamison, hangs out each year. In fact, it seems that the vodka in his cup of orange juice was very, very weak this year. We catch doubloons and beads and had a great time. The little Deli nearby served great oyster and shrimp poboys and has a rest room. Can’t get no better dan dat, Sha, on Mardi Gras Day, Ah guarantee! But don't take my word for it, look at my photos of the entire Rex Parade. As King of Carnival since 1873, Rex Rules with brand new themed floats every year. Just click on the link included in your subscription email and open a new window to run a Slide Show on the photos. If you are not subscribed and would like to have access to Bobby's photos, why not subscribe right now while you're thinking about it? If you'd like to view these particular photos, just mention Rex Parade Photos when you subscribe, and you'll receive the link directly.

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We take the Canal Street Ferry across the Mississippi River every year to go to Mardi Gras downtown, which is always a treat. The parades starts when we reach the Ferry I say, because so many ferry riders are costumed for the day. We made a pass first through the French Quarter and Pete Fountain’s Half-Ass, er, Half-Fast Marching Club caught us there. Pete missed last year after losing his home in Katrina, but he is back this year, albeit not his usual robust, tanned, vibrant self. He played on his clarinet for the news cameras and the folks and joked with everybody. Here’s to many more good years of playing hot licks on the licorice stick, Pete!

That brings us up to speed for another month. These last few days of this already short month have been filled with the clickety-clack of my PC keyboard and once more Del has been indulgent with my deadline driven last of the month activities. I was reading three books, and got finished two of them, but a chance to publish another Guest Essay came my way near the end of the month, thanks to Don Cruse.

We need a break so March will see us visiting friends up highway I-49 and around the middle of Arkansas. While March may be a slow month for some people, down here in New Orleans it is a go-crazy month of parades and fun, fun, fun for the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day and for the Italians on St. Joseph Day. Green beer for the Irish and Food-laden St. Joseph’s Altars for the Italians. And all the non-Irish, non-Italians get to have just as much fun as they do.

Till next month, God Willing and the River don’t Rise, we’ll meet back here between the covers of the Good Mountain Press Digest and share a little time together to smell the magnolia blossoms as their fragrance wafts through the screen doors and look out on the tall sugar pine by the South Portico fence where the mocking bird loves to sing.



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New Quotes Added to quotes.htm this month:
  • Consensus is the negation of leadership.
    — Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister of England, in 1980s)


  • Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solution.
    — Edward R. Murrow (Radio and TV News Correspondant, Mid 20th Century)



  • Speak when you are angry, and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
    — Ambrose Bierce



  • Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world.
    — Thomas Carlyle



  • Principle — particularly moral principle — can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and that with the shifting winds of expediency. Moral principle is a compass forever fixed and forever true.
    — Edward R. Lyman



  • If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a brave man — it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil.
    — James A. Garfield



  • I live by this credo: Have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations. Even in your darkest moment, you usually can find something to laugh about if you try hard enough.
    — Red Skelton - 1913-1997


Website Update: Five Most Popular Pages for January, 2007
  • 1. Doyletics Main Page by Bobby Matherne

  • 2. Art is the Process of DestructionAn Essay by Bobby Matherne

  • 3. Famous and Interesting Quotes by Assorted Authors — Compiled by Bobby Matherne

  • 4. A Reader’s Journal, Vol. 2 Table of Contents by Bobby Matherne

  • 5. Shingles Page by Bobby Matherne
  • Comments from Readers:
    • EMAIL about Skeeter Wetzel's passing from Julie and her mother in Spotsylvania, Virginia
      Dear Bobby,

      You cannot imagine my shock when I searched for information on a long-time family friend for my mother and found your article that Skeeter Wetzel had passed away. This was a man who was a part of the family when I was just a little kid. The last time I saw him was at my uncle's funeral nearly three years ago. My mother wanted to let him know that the Rosary she gave to Skeeter from my uncle's possessions was personally presented to my uncle (the late Monsignor Earl Woods) by Pope John Paul II. She wanted to contact Skeeter to let him know just how special that Rosary was and to tell him to say that Rosary not just carry it with him. God bless Skeeter and bring him to Paradise. What a terrible shock. Poor Zeke and Zach. My heart goes out to them.
      Julie Satterlee Zaepfel
      Blanche "Pinky" Woods Satterlee
      Spotsylvania, Virginia

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    Movies we watched this past month:

    Notes about our movies: Many of the movies we watch are foreign movies with subtitles. After years of watching movies in foreign languages, Arabic, French, Swedish, German, British English, Russian, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and many other languages, sometimes two or three languages in the same movie, the subtitles have disappeared for us. If the movie is dubbed in English we go for the subtitles instead because we enjoy the live action and sounds of the real voices so much more than the dubbed. If you wonder where we get all these foreign movies from, the answer is simple: NetFlix. For a fixed price a month they mail us DVD movies from our on-line Queue, we watch them, pop them into a pre-paid mailer, and the postman effectively replaces all our gas-consuming and time-consuming trips to Blockbuster. To sign up for NetFlix, simply go to http://www.netflix.com/ and start adding all your requests for movies into your personal queue. If you've seen some in these movie blurbs, simply copy the name, click open your queue, and paste the name in the Search box on NetFlix and Select Add. Buy some popcorn and you're ready to Go to the Movies, 21st Century Style. You get to see your movies as the Director created them — NOT-edited for TV, in full-screen width, your own choice of subtitles, and all of the original dialogue.
    P. S. Any rumors that Netflix doesn't deliver DVD's promptly is hogwash so far as I am concerned. Our new DVD's are delivered with a couple of days of the old ones being put out on my mailbox.
    Hits (Watch as soon as you can. A Don't Miss Hit — one you might otherwise have ignored):
    “Amazing Grace” (2007) Wilbur Wilburforce was a young member of the House of Commons in the early 1800s when he first proposed a law against the slave trade. Each year he added a few members on his side and lost. Then a lawyer returned from the West Indies with a suggestion for a law which would dismantle the slave trade without rousing the opposition. An amazing movie with great acting, great script, and a great story presented with elan and an amazing grace.
    “Keeping Mum” (2005) Maggie Smith stars in this insightful and incredibly funny movie. A combination of “Arsenic and Old Lace” and “White Banners” with a twist of “Mrs. Doubtfire” thrown in. The Vicar is working on a convention speech titled, “God Moves in Mysterious Ways”, when his family’s life begins to change for the better.“Sometimes all it takes is a little grace . . . (long pause) . . . a little of God’s grace and all our problems seem to fade away,” the Vicar said in his speech. A DON’T MISS HIT !!!
    “The Guardian” (2006) A paean to the Coast Guard, the only service dedicated to saving lives, not taking lives. This movie makes a move on “Top Gun” and copies some of its best moves. Kevin Costner starts out as Senior Chief and ends up a legend two hours and 19 minutes of film later.
    “The Illusionist” (2006) Ed Norton plays Eisenheim the Illusionist, who loves the fiancee of the would-be Emporer who beats her and holds her captive. Can all his supernatural tricks save her? Will the Police Chief ever figure out the Orange Tree illusion or any illusion while it’s in progress?
    “Idiocracy” (2005) Luke Wilson is the average American in every category according to US Army tests and is selected for hibernation, but ends up 500 years in the future where the prolific offspring of dumb people has turned the whole world dumb and Luke is the smartest human on Earth. This is the setup for non-stop laughs triggered by sight gags such as jet skis in the reflecting pond of a leaning Washington Monument, an above ground swimming pool in the front lawn of a ramshackle White House, and the garbage avalanche to mention a few. This movie takes the dumbing down of America to its ultimate. Takes a strong stomach to watch this movie. This is a Hit for those of you smart enough to watch. P. S. don't drink Gatorade with your popcorn during this movie!
    “The Big Tease” (1999) movie about the filming of a documentary about a Scotsman Hair Dresser who gets invited tot he Silver Platinum Hair Dresser Finals in Hollywood. He is treated as if he won World Cup Playoff rights. Gets to Hollywood only to discover it was a form letter to come as a member of the audience. How can he get to participate? The laughs start from the very beginning and continues to the very big ending! A DON’T MISS HIT!
    “Munna Bhai” (2003) From India comes their Marlon Brando (Sanja Dutt) in a “Guys and Dolls” send-up. Munna is a kidnapper by trade with a gang of henchmen, but his father thinks he’s a doctor, so each time his parents visit, his thieves compound is morphed into a hospital. But love intervenes and Munna decides to enter medical school because of this attractive female doctor. Soon love, music, and healing breaks out. The dance sequences are marvelous, as good as any Broadway production. Turn on the subtitles and listen for snippets of English which pepper the dialogue throughout this amazing and entertaining movie. Two bags of popcorn for this long movie. A DON’T MISS HIT!
    “Pirates of the Carribean — Dead Man’s Chest” (2006) A chest full of ho-ho-ho’s and bottles of rum in a dark comedic presentation on the big screen of the classic Disney ride. A signature role for Johnny Depp. Davy Jones was a masterpiece of costuming and his men were horrific half-men, half-sea specters. The hammerhead dude was a hoot. Every nuance of the ride was included: the dog with the cell key in his mouth, the riotous pirate romp on shore, cannon balls zooming through walls, and of course the prized chest.
    “Hollywood Ending” (2002) in which Tina Leone tells Woody Allen, “You had all the symptoms without the disease.” Woody is neurotic as ever as the nearly passé director who needs the new movie, but goes blind on the day of shooting and hides it from everyone. Suddenly this numerous neuroses disappear, replaced one huge psychosomatic blindness but no one can tell any difference because he still acts as crazy as ever. This is Woody at his best — making fun of himself. Some of the scenes are ROTFLYHO quality. A DON’T MISS HIT! ! !
    “Imagining Argentina” (2004) is what clairvoyant Antonio Banderas does while trying locate his wife Emma Thompson in the depths of the paranoid dictator-run bureaucracy of Argentina. Banderas uses his mind and Emma her physical prowess to survive in this amazing movie of the country’s seamy past.

    “Stranger Than Fiction” (2006) is this movie. Little did I know when I ordered this Netflix movie how much we would enjoy it. Looks inside the head of a novelist trying to kill off the main character of her book, but the character begins to hear her narrative and that can be quite disconcerting — especially if one hears that author is planning to do one in! There's Emma Thompson again, as the chain-smoking train-wreck of an author who fights herself and her character and with the help of Dustin Hoffman arranges an amicable solution to all, we think. A Hollywood movie about a novel with a “Hollywood Ending” which proves that novelists lead lives that are stranger than fiction.
    “The King of Masks” (1999) An old street performer replaces masks on his face faster than anyone can see. He is happy with his lot, lacking only a son to learn his singular trade. He adopts a son only find that the child lacks a “tiny tea spout.” The little girl wins his heart, but cannot qualify to learn his trade. She inadvertently burns his houseboat and has him jailed for kidnaping. Will the sad mask of the ending turn into a happy face? (Great Quote: When asked if he would be partners with another performer, the King of Masks answered, "No. That's like asking two mountain peaks to merge.") A DON’T MISS HIT ! !
    “Flight Plan” (2005) Jodie Foster is an aircraft engineer and is flying to USA with her daughter in the seat next to her and her husband’s body in a coffin in the cargo hold. When her daughter disappears and nobody remembers seeing her and evidence mounts that the daughter never got on the plane and is in fact dead, Jodie has the passengers in crew in an uproar. She is in a place where everyone is telling her lies, but she cannot escape. A thriller, full of suspense to the end.
    “Gridiron Gang” (2006) When gang members from the rivals gangs keep getting killed when they leave the juvenile facility, the leader forms them into a new gang, a “gridiron gang”, which they can move their loyalties to. The football team meets with success against all odds as a result of the leaders of the gridiron who go out for the coin toss.
    “The Departed” (2006) Jack Nicholson in another bloody good portrayal of mob boss Frank Costello. DiCaprio, Doman, and Wahlberg co-star — one as a rat for the police in the mob, one as a rat for the mob in the police, and one who is alive at the end of the movie. With all these rats running around, this movie still got an Oscar for Martin Scorsese.

    Misses (Avoid At All Costs): We attempted to watch these this month, but didn't make it all the way through on most of them. Awhile back when three AAAC horrors hit us in one night, I decided to add a sub-category to "Avoid at All Costs", namely, A DVD STOMPER. These are movies so bad, you don't want anyone else to get stuck watching them, so you want to stomp on the disks. That way, if everyone else who gets burnt by the movie does the same, soon no copies of the awful movie will be extant and the world will be better off.

    “Before Sunset” (2004) and before viewing it, you should stomp this DVD! It is a boring conversation which after a while becomes irritating and then it goes CRUNCH! under the heels of my number 10's! Rekindling a flame of an old love or an old movie (“Before Sunrise”) is like trying to put Plumber’s Goop back in the tube. A waste of time plus you feel sticky and dirty afterwards.

    Your call on these — your taste in movies may differ, but I liked them:

    “The Promise” (2005) A Chinese fairy tale with guys running faster than the speed of light and going back in time and flying at great speeds. The cinematography is gorgeous and makes up for lapses in continuity. A love story of epic proportions.
    “The Wicker Man” (2006) in which Nicholas Cage’s career almost goes up in flames. He is allergic to bee stings, but blithely impregnates the Queen Bee-to-Be and goes the way of all drones. Goes to prove that when you’re in a place where everyone is lying to you, get out while you’re still alive.
    “The Night Listener” (2006) “Real isn’t how you are made, it’s something that happens to you,” Robin Williams quotes from the “Velveteen Rabbit.” When is a kid a kid and when he is just a story? Noone at Midnight asks the question. Another movie which proves that if you’re in a place where everyone is lying to you, get out while you’re still alive.
    “Lost in America” (2006) Danny Glover living in isolation in the woods since Vietnam war takes in a young Vietnamese girl when his friend who was raising her dies. Can his life remain the same thereafter?
    “Crank” (2006) A frantic hit man was poisoned and will die if he doesn’t maintain an adrenaline rush while he strives to pay back the man who poisoned him. Non-stop mania with blood and gore and a chopped-off hand, but mixed in with enough funny bits to keep it interesting.
    “The Science of Sleep” (2005) Don’t watch this one if you’re sleepy because, like the young man in the movie, you’ll won’t be able to tell if you’re asleep or awake. With cardboard autos and TV studios, his dreams are more interesting than his awake life and the two blend in amazing ways.
    “Medea” (1987) Strong vibrant seascapes and passions fill this movie about the wrath of the woman scorned by Jason.
    “Man of the Year” (2006) A comedian runs for president and wins due to a glitch in the code of the new national election system and a female computer programmer who identifies it takes the entire middle of the movie to tell Robin Williams he won due to this mistake. Any female actress but Laura Linney could have done in five minutes what it took her an hour to get around to. Robin couldn’t save the movie she ruined.


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    4. CAJUN STORY:
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    T-Coon was working as a carpenter’s apprentice for Thibodeaux who was watching him nail up some siding. T-Coon would nail one nail and then he’d throw one behind him.

    Finally Thibodeaux asked him, “T-Coon, how come you done been t’rowing half the nails over your shoulder?”

    T-Coon said, “Dat’s simple. If de nail points towards the house I hammer it in. If it points to me, I toss it over my shoulder.”

    Thibodeaux, “Mais, T-Coon, dat’s wasteful! Look — if de nail points de other way, jest save it for the other side of de house!”

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    5. RECIPE of the MONTH from Bobby Jeaux’s Kitchen:
    (click links to see photo of ingredients, preparation steps)
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    Artichoke-Oyster Leeks Soup

    This is an excellent way to use up any extra oyster dressing from Thanksgiving or other holiday dinners. [For other times, simply substitute fresh oysters — Click here for those ingredients.]

    Ingredients 1 Can of artichoke hearts (non-marinated)
    1 pint of fresh oysters or leftover oyster dressing.
    One or two chopped leeks.
    1 can of Chicken Broth
    10 oz. cream (or evap. milk)
    3 TBSP of butter
    3 TBSP of flour (optional)

    Preparation

    Chop a can of artichoke hearts. If artichokes are marinated, rinse and drain the oil and vinegar away before using. Heat broth in microwave for 2 minutes or so.

    Cooking Instructions

    Melt 3 TBSP of butter in large pan and sauté the chopped leeks for about ten minutes. Then add the artichoke hearts and sauté for 5 mins. Add a cup or two of leftover oyster dressing. (See recipe.)

    If using fresh oysters instead of oyster dressing, add 3 TBSP of flour at this point.

    Stir and sauté mixture about 10 mins. Add 14 oz heated chicken broth and bring to boil. Then simmer for about 10 minutes. Add cream. If mixture is too thick because of oyster dressing, add a little water.

    Add parsley, tarragon, and marjoram.

    Bring to light boil, then simmer till ready to serve. Should look like this in the pot, Click Here.

    Nothing beats a good hot soup on a cold January day. As for its taste, as we Cajuns like to say, "Talk about good!"

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    6. POETRY by BOBBY from Flowers of Shanidar:
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                Waiting for the Flowers

    Please, be still, my little one
    The clover green is soon to sport its floral crown
           for wreaths of springtime fancy. Be still when waiting for the flowers.

    Smiles of joy on tender lips
    Chiffon cascades from out your dainty hips,
           gown is vacant of corsage.
    Be still when waiting for the flowers.

    The bride aims her bouquet throw
    O'er her head while the little maids down below
           champ at the bit of weddedness.
    Be still when waiting for the flowers.

    In the straitjacket of death
    Mortal lies subdued and calm in Sunday best
           inside eternal bower.
    Be still when waiting for the flowers.


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    7. REVIEWS and ARTICLES for March:
    = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

    And for my Good Readers, here’s the new reviews and articles for this month. The ARJ2 ones are new additions to the top of A Reader’s Journal, Volume 2, Chronological List, and the ART ones to A Reader’s Treasury.

    1.) ARJ2: The Marriage of Sense and Thought — Imaginative Participation in Science by Stephen Edelglass, Georg Maier, Hans Gebert, and John Davy

    Studying and working as a physicist I found myself learning things that no one I knew, outside of other physicists, cared about. It seemed clear to me at the time that I was interested in things that were scientific, and those other people were not interested in scientific things. I was like one of the clothiers of the fictional King, and only the other clothiers and the King who paid for his new clothes were interested in what I was learning about making and designing the King's new clothes. Meanwhile my other friends were more interested in things like friendship and that I was sure couldn't be described scientifically.

    [page 1] When friends meet, they smile. They greet one another warmly and are glad to have met again. These sentences describe a common event in a simple and comprehensible way. But they are not "scientific." The warmth of a greeting cannot be measured by a thermometer, nor is the accompanying "gladness" observable. How then could friendship be described scientifically?

    The authors of this book point out how certain metrics for a smile defining the size of the opening of the oral aperture could be developed, but science, it seems, "can talk about human beings only in a dehumanizing way." Yet, we can talk about two friends meeting and smiling and we know that something other than simply the opening of the two oral apertures is going on. Our scientific paradigm requires that we use an approach which works well only for objects that are dead. We have a science which completely excludes the ability to describe living things, and it requires that we treat human beings as non-living things! Rightly understood, physiologists and other medical practitioners are usually materialists who study corpses scientifically, and their practice with living human beings, when successful, is more like an art than a science.

    You surely remember the fairy tale about a King who was going to get new clothes, a completely new Royal outfit with everything from underwear to the Royal robe. The material to be used was pseudo-phenomenal cloth -- it was so rich and fine that only a King could afford it. The clothiers gave the King a sophisticated barrage of descriptive words which culminated in the King's unknowingly parading through his subjects completely nude. No one in the crowd of subjects lining the parade route said anything, until one small voice was heard from the crowd, "The King has no clothes on!"

    Materialistic science has been clothed in "pseudo-phenomenal" cloth for hundreds of years now, and the authors of this fine book raise their small voice to cry aloud to all who are wondering what is wrong with King Science, "The King is naked!" The clothiers of Science have built its Royal garments of pseudo-phenomenal cloth, words which describe things and objects which no one can see, no one has ever seen, and no one will ever see. Why? Because the objects they discuss, like the King's New Clothes exist only in the words used to describe them. They are convenient fictions used to create the illusion of objects where in fact there are none. Like the subjects stationed alongside the road of the King's route, we inwardly have felt somehow cheated or deceived in our heart of hearts, but we have held our silence. With the King and his courtiers proclaiming how fine his new clothes are to the world, who would dare complain aloud that the King could have been deceived for all these years? Edelglass, Maier, Gebert, and Davy are like the small boy in the fairy tale yelling to all that King Science has no clothes on.

    As a physicist, I cut my eye teeth on pseudo-phenomenal thought. In my Senior Project, I built a field emission microscope and took images of atoms of tungsten on the tip of a very sharp needle I had crafted. No one was going to tell me that atoms were not real. I had taken a photo of them, or so I thought, deluded as I was by the pseudo-phenomenal cloth of the science I had been studying. Am I saying that there are no atoms? No, what I am saying is that atoms are not things -- they are as invisible as the King's new clothes. The photo I had taken and all anyone can take a photo of is the effect that arrays of atoms make when beams of electrons are bounced off or extracted from them. Atoms are non-things, electrons are non-things, but if we bombard the former with the latter, we can produce photos which reveal some evidence of structure which, if we wish, we can point to and say, these bumps here are atoms. But the bumps, rightly understood, are merely patterns created by one kind of process (electrons) interacting with another kind of process (atoms).

    If scientists can only talk sense to other scientists, we live in a split culture and each half speaks nonsense to the other.

    [page 2] In this book we propose to examine science itself and, by tracing the origins of this strange dichotomy, to show a way in which the split can be overcome.

    The scientist can only speaks of objects and see the universe as full of objects. This focus on objects leads to what scientists call their "objective view" of reality. But how can a view be real if it eliminates all of the goodness of life and living -- if it takes the two smiles between friends and replaces them with a measurement of the widening of their oral apertures? Scientists have not been bashful about the necessity for such objective measures, at least until recently. Anything not objective would have been called superstitious projections of human beings.

    [page 6] It is widely considered a major triumph of science to have transcended these superstitions by recognizing them for what they are: projections of our inner life out into the "real" universe. Hence, for real knowledge to be attainable, the "outer world" had to be purged of this inner life.

    Scientists, by eliminating human projections, have eliminated themselves from the world they seek to describe. They have become detached observers of the world, which certainly can be proven to have detached observers in it, but which they exclude in their descriptions. They "see the world as a machine, which they haunt like ghosts." (Page 6) In the mind of scientists, human beings have become the ghost in the machine, passively recording what they observe and calling it science. But knowledge is never created by machines, but by the humans who create the machines. Knowledge is never the product of objects, but only of beings. But if the knowledge human beings create is only of objects, and not beings, are we not thinking of a world in which no human beings exist?

    [page 10] If we systematically think of a world in which human beings don't exist, we should not be surprised to find ourselves creating a world in which they can't exist.

    Such a world was created cinematically in the 2001 movie A. I. which allows us to see a grim world of robots who have eliminated the humans who created them. This is the ultimate end of a world of materialism in which everything can be reduced to matter: humans are superfluous, and only matter matters.

    We put blinders on horses to eliminate their views of shadows in their peripheral vision which would otherwise make them skittish. Scientist have had their blinders on for so long, they dismiss claims that what was once observable by humans in their peripheral vision doesn't exist because they ignore the existence of the very blinders they have donned.

    [page 13, 14] This dismissal is supported by more than a habit of mind; the beings that apparently peopled the medieval and earlier universes are not to be seen in the world around us. Unobservable today, such beings must have been "imagined" and not "real."

    Children are born without such blinders. They can enjoy their very real playmates who are invisible to adults. Parents will likely call their children's invisible friends "imaginary playmates." With the advent of modern physics, especially quantum mechanical effects, scientists are faced with realities which cannot be seen without special instruments, but the same parents who would ridicule their children for calling their imaginary playmates real, will call an object that is only known through the agency of their complex instruments, a "real" object! Anything that requires such expense to view must be real, must it not?

    [page 14] Specially designed instruments are required. Nevertheless, we still habitually employ words and concepts drawn from sense experiences, even when speaking about the invisible and intangible realms now under investigation. In high-energy physics, where the materialistic paradigm is most obviously out-of-date, this is quite striking. The words we hear, "particles," "particle accelerators," "targets," and so on, seem to imply that the objects described would be both visible and tangible if they were not so small. Yet on reflection, scientists realize there is no meaningful way the realms they are exploring can be described as either visible or tangible.

    Other than children, scientists tend to ridicule religion for its superstitious and supernatural beliefs, concepts, and doctrines. Once again we find the process psychologists call "projection" at work. We project when we ridicule others who are doing blatantly and openly what we ourselves are doing covertly, out of our own awareness.

    The key to understanding the problem lies in the concept of pseudo-phenomenal thought. A atom pictured as a nucleus with whirling electrons around it does not exist except in our thoughts. It is a useful fiction for describing the atomic structure, but the description is not a reality, it is only a map of some unknown processes going on out there outside of our mind in the phenomenal and unknown world of the atom. It ceases to be a useful picture of the atom when we confront evidence which contradicts the picture, a paradox, in other words. The existence of a paradox tells us that there is some aspect of reality which our map, model, or whole paradigm of science is not equipped to handle or explain. An atom as we have been taught to picture in our high school textbooks is a pseudo-phenomenal thought. It is a crutch that helps us learn to walk and it must be discarded if we wish to run.

    [page 70] Until the advent of the atomic model of matter, scientists had developed mathematical ideas in an almost instinctive interplay between observation and thought. This was not true of the next model, which "explained" the differences between solids, liquids, and gases in terms of the motion of atoms carrying energy, otherwise called heat. Atoms were regarded as imperceptibly small versions of ordinary solid particles following the usual laws of mechanics. For classical physicists and chemists, they were the entities that really underlay the phenomenal world and were discovered in the same way fields had been discovered: mathematically in imagination.

    Aren't these mathematical fictions useful for discovering things? Yes. But at some point we must recognize their limitations and discard the very tools which led us to our present location where the tools are no longer useful.

    In summary, Sense and Thought are two paths to reality, but they must both be taken in conjunction with each other if we are ever to live successfully and prosper on a robust and healthy Earth as true human beings.

    http://www.doyletics.com/arj/sensthou.htm

    2.) ARJ2 GUEST ESSAY: Karl Popper and Owen Barfield and the Embattled Ideal of an ‘Open Society’ by Don Cruse

    In this Guest Essay, Don Cruse follows up on his work, Evolution and the New Gnosis, which he wrote with Robert Zimmer in 2002 on the unconscious spiritual roots of Darwinian evolution. In this essay he calls for an open debate on the materialistic interpretations of evolution.

    [From Essay] ‘Change’ is here the appropriate metaphor. Science must change to overcome Darwinism, and with it materialism, and religion must change to overcome dogma. And surely an ‘open’ renewal of the great scholastic debate, in science, religion and philosophy, bringing all of the resources of the modern mind to bear upon it, will provide the key to both of these much needed developments, and in a manner that would have gratified both Karl Popper and Owen Barfield.

    This is not a debate of creationism versus evolution, but a debate on the very philosophical foundations of evolution itself, what it means to evolve. Machines do not create themselves and they cannot evolve, and human beings are not machines and we did not evolve in a purposeless manner through random changes in our human character and structure.

    Science has become like religion was in the Middle Ages, when open debate was banned on fear of excommunication or being burning at the stake. The weapon of choice for keeping debate closed is for scientists to pretend no problem exists, and Cruse has made it his goal to make it unpleasant for scientists maintain their closed-minded stance to an open discussion of the issues of the epistemological basis of Darwinian Evolution.

    http://www.doyletics.com/arj/popperob.htm

    3.) ARJ2: Anthroposophy and Inner Life; 9 Lec, Dornach, Jan-Feb, 1924, GA#234 by Rudolf Steiner

    In this series of lectures, Rudolf Steiner starts back at the beginning and explains anthroposophy to his audience and via transcription to us. On Page 68, he says, "I have referred to these things before, but it is my present intention to give a resume of what has been developed within our society in the course of twenty-one years" On Page 82, he relates that, to his spiritual way of perceiving, "the past is continually present; the present moment is, at the same time, a real eternity." Steiner suggests, in effect, that we can learn to see eternity in the present moment. If the past is continually present, then the earlier forms of consciousness are available to us right now. We needed to lose those instinctive forms in order to develop our intellect, and now it's time to move once more from the physical to the spiritual

    [page 82] What I am explaining to you was once the content of instinctive forms of consciousness. If we really understand ancient records we find a consciousness of this fourfold composition of man and his connection with the cosmos. But this knowledge has been lost to man for many centuries; otherwise he could not have developed the intellect he has today. But we have now reached the point in human evolution when we must again advance from the physical to the spiritual.

    In the Editor's Preface, Owen Barfield sees this book as a book of travel rather than the guide book that Theosophy provides.

    [page 9] It is no longer simply the objective facts and events, but the way in which the soul tentatively begins to experience these, which the lecturer makes such earnest efforts to convey. We have exchanged a guide book for a book of travel. The one who has been there re-creates his experience for the benefit of those who have not, trying with every device at his disposal to reveal what it actually felt like.

    Barfield tells us that Steiner strived to bring esoteric or hidden knowledge into the light of day and make it into public knowledge available to everyone. His goal was to communicate this esoteric knowledge in an exoteric way to each one of us alive today, some eighty years after these lectures.

    [page 12] Is this an esoteric or an exoteric work? Certainly it will be more readily appreciated by readers who have worked through other approaches to be found in the books and lecture-cycles and perhaps especially in the Leading Thoughts. Yet it is the whole aim and character of Spiritual Science, as Rudolf Steiner developed it, to endeavor to be esoteric in an exoteric way. For that was what he believed the crisis of the twentieth century demands. And I doubt if he ever struggled harder to combine the two qualities than in these nine lectures given at the end of his life. Thus, although he was addressing members of the Anthroposophical Society, I believe that he had his gaze fixed on Western man in general, and I hope that an increasing number of those who are as yet unacquainted with any of his teaching may find in this book (and it can only be done by intensive application) a convincing proof of the immense fund of wisdom, insight and knowledge from which these teachings spring.

    Steiner spells out the two puzzles which confront us as human beings in the present time:

    [page 22] Thus, from two directions, searching questions confront man today. One of these questions arises when he becomes aware that:

    Nature exists, but man can only approach her by letting her destroy him;

    the other when he sees:

    The human soul exists, but Nature can only approach this human soul by becoming mere semblance.

    Steiner subsequently provides ample answers for these questions through his exoteric science of esoteric knowledge, anthroposophy. He provides answering to the longing and questioning human heart who, though it loves Nature, cannot find its true home inside Nature. Steiner speaks openly and exoterically of knowledge which had been centuries earlier shared only privately and esoterically.

    The famous script called Desiderata has this wonderful phrase in it which seems resonate with everyone who hears it, even though few understand it, up until now.

    You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees & the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

    Perhaps this next passage of Steiner's lecture will illuminate us as to the reason for the deep feeling the passage arises in us.

    [page 94] We now stand in the universe and say to ourselves, as we consider, first of all, this experience with our etheric body: truly, we are not only here for ourselves; the universe has its own intentions in regard to us. It has put us here that its own content may pass through us and be received again in the form into which we can transmute it. As human beings we are not here for our own ends alone; in respect to our etheric body, for example, we are here for the universe. The universe needs us because, through us, it 'fulfils' itself -- fills itself again and again with its own content. There is an interchange, not of substance but of thoughts between the universe and man. The universe gives its cosmic thoughts to our etheric body and receives then back again in a humanized condition. We are not here for ourselves alone; we are here for the sake of the universe.

    In the movie of about twenty years ago titled, "Ghost", we witness as two evil protagonists die on screen and out of the shadows come dark spirit beings who drag the away them screaming as if their very existence were threatened by the dark things. We will each come face to face with such spirits after death if we have in some way hindered the evolution of humankind.

    [page 129] On entering the world of spiritual beings, however, we do not merely meet the ideal judgment that we are of little worth in respect of any fault or disgraceful deed we have committed; we feel the gaze of these beings resting upon us as if it would annihilate our very being. In respect of all we have done that is valuable, the gaze of these beings falls upon us as if we first attained thereby our full reality as psycho-spiritual beings. Our reality depends upon our value. Should we have hindered the evolution that was intended in the spiritual world, it is as if darkness were robbing us of our very existence. If we have done something in accordance with the evolution of the spiritual world, and its effects continue, it is as if light were calling us to fresh spiritual life. We experience all I have described and enter the realm of spirit beings. This enhances our consciousness in the spiritual world and keeps us awake. Through all the demands made upon us there, we realize that we have won something in the universe in regard to our own reality.

    These lectures present in only 130 pages a deep look into the major points of Steiner's spiritual science, and even though it may be a reprise for some, there will be nuggets of mind-boggling concepts and details or rephrasing for all who read these lectures. The nuggets will be spiritual food to be ingested and digested over the coming years as one works oneself on the way to the light of the spiritual world.

    The only question for you to answer is this "Shall I read the review or go for the whole book?" For the review, get started now by clicking the link below. For the book, at the bottom of the review itself there is an order form from SteinerBooks to purchase a copy for yourself. In either case, some good reading awaits your pleasure and enlightenment

    http://www.doyletics.com/arj/aainnerl.htm

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    I hear often from my Good Readers that they have bought books after reading my book reviews. Keep reading, folks! As I like to remind you, to obtain more information on what's in these books, buy and read the books — for less information, read the reviews.


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    8. COMMENTARY:
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    In this section I like to comment on events in the world, in my life, and in my readings which have come up during the month. This month I'll allow Padre Filius, who is always on the job, to comment on something he noticed during the Aruba-Holloway disappearance investigation which filled the news channels for many months.

    1. Padre Filius Reads a Headline and Spots a Bumpersticker this Month:

    Padre Filius, the cartoon character created by your intrepid editor and would-be cartoonist, will appear from time to time in this Section of the Digest to share us on some amusing or enlightening aspect of the world he observes during his peregrinations.

    This month the good Padre reads the Aruba Times Headline and Spots its Incongruency with a favorite Aruba Bumpersticker.





    2. Krewe D'Etat, Carnival Parade Organization Extraordinaire!

    This Mardi Gras Krewe parades while Del and I are at our Annual Ball so we are unable to attend the parade, but fortunately, the Krewe D'Etat has its annual luncheon at Galatoire's Restaurant in the French Quarter the same day my krewe members do, and for the past two years I've been able to obtain copies of their float bulletin. Almost every other Carnival Krewe has a King, but the Krewe D'Etat, in keeping with its name, has a Dictator. What a Coup!

    The Krewe D'Etat theme this year was a satire of four very public figures, among other things. Two of the four made headlines by doing nothing and the other two did something, but it was bad.

    The Governor and the Mayor did mostly nothing or their attempts to do something failed.

    The Congressman allegedly took a huge bribe and froze it in his home freezer. Talk about COLD CASH!

    The Sports Reporter planned to murder his wife and is alleged to have done just that. His plans were carefully laid and duly executed, all except for the last item which was to destroy the list of his plans! (See Float honoring his Procrastination.) Here are the INFAMOUS FOUR as portrayed on the cover of the Krewe D'Etat's Parade bulletin:

    BLUNDER WOMAN
    (The Governess of Louisiana who made motorcyclists wear helmets and criticized everyone who did do something about Katrina for not doing anything. That's two things she's good at: Criticizing and Not doing anything. But Hey! No one in Louisiana has to look at the tattoos on the bare skulls and plumber's butts of Harley riders anymore!)

    DOLLAR BILL JEFFERSON
    (The Democratic Congressman best known for rushing to the aid of his Refrigerator/Freezer during Katrina.)

    MURDER HE WROTE
    (The Sports Reporter, Gun Enthusiast, Murder Planner, Saints Fan, Amateur Masker, and Star-Crossed Procrastinator.)

    AMERICAN IDLE
    (The Mayor of New Orleans, re-elected and riding high above the waves and not doing much else except planning his condo in another state.)







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    9. CLOSING NOTES:
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